No destination is so closely tied to yachting than Newport, R.I., and nothing is associated with yachting more than the famed America’s Cup.
For more than 25 years, Newport-based Seascope Yacht Charters (www.seascopenewport.com) has offered up the America’s Cup experience to groups aboard former “Cup-class” 12-Metre racing yachts cutting through the waters of Narragansett Bay.
Those curious about the name of the sailing boat class may ask the question, “What on the boat is 12 meters?”
“The answer is, nothing onboard the ship is 12 meters,” says Mary Weaver, a charter associate with Seascope. “Twelve meters is the answer to a formula. That’s what team architects create—a formula of different weights and heights and components of each boat to create a better racing boat. The item on one of our ships that would be closest to 12 meters would be the mast, which is actually 92 feet.”
The company’s “Your Own America’s Cup Regatta” program utilizes its fleet of
six ships, including four racing sailboats. Seascope also owns two vintage powerboats.
Groups can choose between three levels of team-building programs, with no prior sailing experience required. Participants can either take the helm themselves—working as a team to be the first around the course to reach the committee boat—or have the Seascope crew provide the muscle to crank the winches.
“We don’t want to scare anyone away by saying you have to haul up sails,” Weaver says. “It depends on the group that is coming in. If you have a group that has no sailing experience whatsoever, we tailor the experience so they can work together as a cohesive team racing against each other. The middle level may be a combination of people, some who have sailed and some who have not. Someone who has a tremendous amount of sailing experience will have a much more complex position on the boat. And we also have programs so that if you have a group that really knows how to sail, we can have some really incredible races.”
The program includes a gourmet boxed lunch, with the yachts tying up to
the committee boat, as well as a race boat to videotape the contest and a spectator vessel for non-sailors, which pulls double-duty as the venue for the post-event cocktail party.
Seascope offers the “Your Own America’s Cup Regatta” seven days a week, generally from May through the beginning of November.
Another Newport company that operates 12-Metre team-building sailing programs, America’s Cup Charters (www.americascupcharters.com), features a fleet of five 12-Metre ships, along with luxury powerboats.
